The threat of adaptive jammers affecting airborne intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (AISR) communications reachback creates challenges that conventional satellite communications systems may not be capable of managing. For example, conventional methods for protecting military satellite communications systems are limited to spreading friendly signals, increasing the dynamic range of receiver analog to digital converters (ADCs), and adaptive nulling on-board single satellite communications platforms.
Additionally, conventional satellite communications systems may not be capable of satisfying the demand for wideband (beyond the line of sight) and AISR communications reachback, because: a) frequency hopping spread spectrum systems utilize bandwidth to achieve spreading gain, which may result in lack of sufficient bandwidth for achieving wideband applications; b) dynamic ranges of current military satellite communications systems are insufficient to demodulate friendly data in a saturated environment from adaptive jammers; and c) single satellite communications hosted nullers eliminate friendly users in relatively close proximity to enemy jammers.
Improvements in satellite communications bandwidth in contested environment and the ability to collect low power friendly emitters among co-channel interferers are desired.